Four decades after China first announced its decision to open up to the world, the once insignificant player on the global economic stage is now ranked first in terms of contribution to world economic growth. The nation now aims to mull over more measures to further open its economy, promoting high-quality development of trade and two-way investment.
According to statistics from China's National Bureau of Statistics, before China's opening up, the country's average annual contribution to global economic growth was only 1.1 percent. However, from 1979 to 2012, the average yearly contribution rate shot up to 15.9 percent. In 2018, the ratio of China's contribution to global economic growth was 27.5 percent, 24.4 percentage points higher than in 1978.
"Thanks to its opening-up policies, China has made continuous progress and breakthroughs in trade development. In the future, China must advance high-quality economic development under conditions of deeper opening up, bolstering the development of the global economy," Qian Keming, vice-minister of commerce, said at the China Forum in October.
China's opening up has also provided opportunities for its trade partners. The country has now become the biggest trade partner of over 120 countries and regions worldwide, while the average annual growth of its foreign direct investment reached 25.2 percent in 2018, nearly three times its global counterparts.
"China has made great efforts to open more fields up to foreign investment, as well as creating a better business environment for foreign enterprises. My country welcomes such gestures, and we hope Japanese enterprises can contribute to China's high-standard opening up in the future," said Hideo Ishizuki, minister of the economic section of the Japanese Embassy to China.
Ishizuki further noted that China's opening up had entered a new phase of high-standard and high-quality development, while further international cooperation is needed to bolster the growth of the global economy.

Better business environment for the world
"I think China's opening up has provided foreign companies with many business opportunities. When it comes to favorable policies and subsidies, foreign companies and their Chinese counterparts are equal," Qian Yu, President of CHEP Asia, an Australian company that serves customers in a range of industrial and retail supply chains, told People's Daily Online.
First entering China in 2006, CHEP has witnessed the development of China's opening up. According to Qian, in recent years, Chinese authorities have issued countless policies supporting foreign business, providing them easier access to enter the Chinese market.
"Our base is in Shanghai. The local authorities always invite us to meetings with other Chinese companies, explaining new policies to us, as well as soliciting our ideas and demands. We are treated just the same as our Chinese counterparts, and we are happy about that," said Qian.
Such favorable conditions have attracted many foreign companies and investments to China. According to a report released in October by the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a research center affiliated with the Ministry of Commerce, from 1978 to 2018, China attracted over 2 trillion US dollars of non-financial foreign investment, with nearly 1 million foreign-invested enterprises settling in China. It has also been the developing economy with the largest foreign capital inflow for 27 consecutive years.
In addition to easier access to the Chinese market and institutional innovation that allows foreign investors better communication channels with the government and their Chinese partners, China's new ideas of opening up, such as setting up free trade zones, or promoting the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, have also provided golden opportunities for companies outside of the Chinese mainland.
Eric Kuo, the co-founder of R-Guardian, a Hong Kong company in Qianhai, Guangdong Free Trade Zone (FTZ), told People's Daily Online that the FTZ is a perfect place for start-ups from Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions to develop their business.
To attract talents like Kuo, a university-like incubator was founded in Qianhai in 2014, providing young entrepreneurs one-year free rent, a favorable tax rate, and assistance to connect with well-known angel investors and venture funds to those aged between 18-45. The center has so far helped 340 start-ups, 169 of which are from Hong Kong and Macao, while half of their projects have already obtained investment, worth a total of over 1.5 billion RMB (about $210 million).
"Favorable policies such as assistance to connect with investors are especially attractive to start-ups from Hong Kong and Macao, as many of us have been struggling to find investors due to the high operational costs at home," said the 27-year-old Hong Kong entrepreneur.
Echoing Kuo, Qian noted that CHEP has also gained significant benefits from joining China's Belt and Road Initiative, as they have been transporting Chinese-made automobiles to BRI countries such as Russia, Thailand and South Africa.
"Foreign companies can gain great benefits from China's opening-up policies. I believe that China will keep opening its doors to the world. We foreign companies can contribute to China's development, while we can also make our fortune from China's further opening up," Qian added.

Shared development for all
During the forum, the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation released an opening-up report, which attempts to build a system for evaluating an economy’s openness, and aims to assess China's endeavors objectively and fairly.
The report comes amid escalating trade tensions between China and the US, the world's top two economies, and rising worldwide protectionism and anti-globalism. The report also responds to doubts among foreign governments and media outlets about China, noting that China's opening up is fair and beneficial for all.
"At a time when protectionism has prevailed, it's crucial to construct a comprehensive and fair system to assess the extent to which a country is opening up," Zhang Wei, deputy president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told reporters on the sidelines of the forum. "China has been opening up on all fronts. It's improper to evaluate such efforts based on only one criterion."
According to the report, China is the second-largest economy to invest abroad, while its foreign direct investment reached $1.98 trillion in 2018, ranking second in the world. The country almost fully opened its agricultural and manufacturing industries to foreign investment, benefiting both developing and developed countries.
China has fulfilled its commitments since its entry to the World Trade Organization, and has been continuing to open up wider on its own agenda, Zhang said, citing the finance sector as an example.
China's opening up has strengthened confidence among foreign investors. According to a report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), China's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows increased by 5 percent in the first six months of 2019, while FDI flows into the US dropped by more than a quarter.
"It's obvious who is becoming more open and who is becoming more conservative," commented Geng Shuang, spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a press conference in October, adding that the main reason for the drop in global FDI is protectionism and unilateralism.
The spokesperson also reiterated China's stance on opening up, commenting that China will further open its door to the world, and continue to combat unilateralism and protectionism with the help of the international community.